The Roman Emperors and How You Feel About Them

What made constantine such a good emperor? All you ever hear is him converting them to Christianity.

Feel free to post Eastern emperors, but I'd like the focus to be between Augustus and the loss of Rome. Apologies for not mentioning that.

He helped get rid of of the Tetrarchy monstrosity and fundamentally changed the way the empire would operate. He revived the Roman state, more or less. He was still a monumental bastard, though.

Good contribution

>that reason for making diocletian your least favorite

What would you have done? During that era in time the fastest method of meaningful communication was horseback messenger and the Empire was simple too damn large to maintain efficiently in a timely manner by one administration. News from the east would take too damn long to get to Rome.

This. I'd honestly put Diocletian i the top five, myself. The Dominate was a big deal.

Top Five
>Augustus
>Aurelian
>Trajan
>Hadrian
>Diocletian

Worst Five
>Elagabalus
>Commodus
>Caligula
>Nero
>Caracalla
(excluding the shitty one year emperors that popped up)

Favorite
>Hadrian

Hated
>Honorius

Best of the Worst
>Caligula

Worst of the Best
>Marcus Aurelius

Underrated
>Aurelian

Most overrated
>Marcus Aurelius

Most Comfy
>Antoninus Pius

>>Top five best emperors
I could just put the Five Good Emperors here, but that would be boring, so besides them:
Augustus
Constantine
Justinian
Heraclius
Majorian

>>Top five worst emperors
Caligula
Honorius
Phocas
Caracalla
John "the empire is little more than just Constantinople, and the city itself is in mortal danger of being conquered, so let's all go on a tour of Europe!" Palaiologos

>>Your personal favorite emperor
Justinian II or Michael IV

>>The emperor you dislike the most
Mehmet II :^)

>>Favorite "bad" emperor
Justinian II

>>Most disliked "good" emperor
Marcus Aurelius, I mean, he was great, but letting Commodus be in charge is such a huge mistake that it overshadows all his good accomplishments

>>Most underrated emperor
Constantius II

>>Most overrated emperor
Alexios I or Julian

>>Emperor under whose reign you would be the most comfy
Antoninus Prius, he was the one charge during the golden age when everything was calmest, that's where I'd like to be

>Trajan
Found him overrated. In fact, the stress he put on the empire's coffers and the depletion of reserve manpower in several western legions to provide the money and muscle for his Parthian Empire invasion was ultimately fruitless and it so drained the Roman Empire that it never again mounted an offensive on its own again after that period. He crippled Rome militarily badly.

Definitely not top 5 in my books. I'm more confused why you have Caracalla as one of the worst yet praise Trajan as one of the best considering their biggest failings are mutual.

Caesar forever and always.

Fuck off.

Not an emperor.

>Top five best emperors
Augustus
Domitian
Trajan
Diocletian
Aurelian

>Top five worst emperors
Tiberius
Caracalla
Elagabalus
Commodus
Caligula

>Your personal favorite emperor
Aurelian

>The emperor you dislike the most
Tiberius

>Favorite "bad" emperor
Domitian

>Most disliked "good" emperor
Constantine

>Most underrated emperors
Septimius Severus, Domitian, Julian

>Most overrated emperor
Marcus Aurelius, Constantine

>Emperor under whose reign you would be the most comfy
Vespasian

Tiberius set the standard for the sterotypical decadent Emperor. He also killed Germanicus, who was pretty cool, and he was weak willed and let Sejanus establish the idea of Praetorians controlling the Emperor, and not the other way around.

>Tiberius
>decadent
t. Cassius Dio

>implying that most of history hasn't been defined by great men

Why are so many people so heavily biased against Tiberius, a man who never wanted to be emperor and even intentionally absconded from Rome while papa Augustus was reigning to stay out of limelight? Or the fact that its been attested that Dio is heavily biased against Tiberius as well as other Senatorial accounts who held grudges against him and his successors until after Nero?

Tiberius was still a shitty ruler. He did nothing to improve the empire. He did manage to increase the treasury, but only by saying no to everything proposed by the Senate.

I think he is also held responsible for how Caligula turned out.

>He did nothing to improve the empire.
>starting career in the military: secured boarders of Roman Armenia with Parthian Armenia
>pacified Germanic tribes penetrating southwards into the Alps and secured Italy's direct northern boarders; also conquered Raetia and added a new province to the empire
>discovered the Rhine River and mapped out the cartography of interior/inner Germania further pushing the empire's boundaries while subduing more hostile Germanic tribes
>after being made direct heir; he returned to stabilize the borders into Germania again and punishing some of the tribes that had ambushed and killed Varus and his three legions
You have a very checkered and colored bias against Tiberius.

My favorite Emperor is Julian, of the Constantian dynasty. Mostly because - as a Public Administration major myself - his attempts at bureaucratic reform and devolution of power to the local urban governments seem wise and reasonable and in line with the long-dead (by then) Roman Republican spirit; of course, I like him also because of his attempts to revive paganism and reduce the influence of Christianity, that disgusting belief-system.

Other favorite Emperors of mine include:
-Marcus Aurelius, once again because of his legacy as a skilled bureaucrat-administrator
-Elagabalus, because even though he was incompetent, God knows he's certainly one of the most interesting (letting himself get fucked in the Imperial Palace by his barbarian guards and by passerby? Priceless!)
-Basil II, the so-called 'Bulgar-Slayer', for being one of the few competent and prudent Emperors to rule the Empire during its Medieval iteration - also, he's my husbando, because on a physical level, he was my type :3

Being a good general does not make one a great emperor and Tiberius was a great general. However, once his son died he became kind of a dick.

You're putting too much emphasis on Suetonius bullshit. He practiced diplomacy and crisis management on the same level of skill that his adopted father and predecessor, Augustus, did with keeping the state running smoothly. Sejanus ultimately got out-played by Tiberius, and was executed along with his conspirators and allies; he continued to strengthen the Roman economy, kickstart Pax Romana, and expand the empire further without burdening Rome with more expensive conquests while keeping relations with Parthian Empire warm.

>all these people putting Elagabolus on their worst list

Whatsa matter Veeky Forums, can't handle a little bit of boipucci?

To be fair, its heavily believed by a lot of historians that Tiberius was continuing Augustus policies of curbing the power of the Senate and equestrian class and being that Dio and other writers were part of that same Senatorial aristocracy, they were going to be strongly negative on him no matter what he did.

Same issue with Domitian.

Are you seriously using the Sejanus situation as a positive example for Tiberius' reign?

He created Sejanus by trusting him too much. Tiberius realized his mistake too late and responded terribly by executing everyone remotely associated with Sejanus.

I think he's doing the opposite, he's saying that realizing what Sejanus was doing that it was something he could no longer absolve himself of and he coopted with the Senate to stop the dude from taking over the empire. And likely more to the point, it had to do with him probably firmly at this point realizing Sejanus did his son in.

>Your personal favorite emperor
Julian. I really like toying around with the idea of Rome returning to the principate.
>The emperor you dislike the most
Constantine. Not because of Christianity, but because he seems like a genuine murderous sociopath.
>Favorite "bad" emperor
Heliogabalus. Bizarre and entertaining.
>Most disliked "good" emperor
Apart from Constantine? Diocletian. The tetrarchy was fubar. His dominate and feudal laws laid the groundwork for the dark-ages.
>Most underrated emperor
Domitian
>Most overrated emperor
Constantine
>Emperor under whose reign you would be the most comfy
Any of the 5 meme emperors.

Best
>Augustus
>Trajan
>Hadrian
>Aurelius
>Julian

Worst
>Constantine Christ Lover
>Caligula
>Elegalabus
>Commodus
>Romulus Augustulus

Honorable Mention for best
>Nero "Senate fucker"
>Hadrian
>Pius
>Domitian
>Vespasian

Personal Favorite
>Augustus

Who I hate
>Constantine

Favorite bad emperor
>Caligula

Disliked Good emperor
>Justinian

Underrated
>Nero

Overrated
>Galba

Comfiest
>Aurelius

Favorite good:Trajan
Favorite Bad:Nero
Most Overrated:Constantine
Comfiest:Hadrian

I like that crippled emperor.

This

Nero was pretty based imo

>The tetrarchy was a bad thing
Favorite has got to be Maurice, though hes past OPs cut off date.

Over-rated: Trajan
Worst: Phocas

Claudius? He had palsy, I think.

Yeah.
He only became emperor because no one thought he would, so he wasn't killed.

>I also like Julian because I find it pretty interesting how he tried to bring back paganism. I always wondered what caused him to feel so strongly about it

Because zealous christfags killed most his family and he was raised on the old Greek classics. I just think its funny that he killed in the dumbest way because of >muh pagan honor and glory.

>muh pagan honour and glory

more like
"shitshitshit we need gold to pay for the bread and circus DDDD: ... the Persians seem well off"

>Top 5
Augustus
Titus
Trajan
Hadrian
Diocletian

>Bottom 5
Domitian
Caligula
Nero
Commodus
Elagabalus

>Personal favorite
Theodosius

>Personal hate
Constantine

>Favorite "bad" emperor
Tiberius

>Personal hated "good" emperor
Marcus Aurelius

>Most underrated
Septimus Severus

>Most overrated
Julian

>Most comfy to live under
Trajan

He attacked the Persians because they refused to return Roman territories they stole from Constantius II. Even if your enemy is asking for peace, you can't give it to him if he just took a huge chunk of your empire and is refusing to return it.

Granted Julian's invasion became a disaster because he didn't know about "quitting while you're winning". And once Jovian took the purple he immediately capitulated to all the Persian demands, abandoning their Armenian allies in the process. The campaign was Julian's fault, but Jovian made the defeat much more disastrous than it needed to be.

Julian attacked the Sassanids while Shapur II was way, initially putting down several nomadic incursions in the northeastern territories coming from Central Asia. IIRC, the Battle of Ctesiphon itself was a tactical stalemate for both sides but a strategic victory as Julian repeatedly stretched out Roman supply lines and were using a scorched earth policy before Shapur II could reinforce and intervene directly.

As for Jovian, he was an ineffectual leader and weak commander and militarily not as brilliant as Julian while the Sassanids were pushing more reinforcements in during the peace talks after Julian's death. He really had NO room to do anything except ransom himself and the remnants of his Roman army back to secure his throne.

I thought they killed everyone in that house but Claudius was hiding behind a curtain or something

>Vespasian

Could easily be one of the top most underrated emperors of the WRE

No that's when they went to pronounce him emperor, he hid behind a curtain because he thought the guards were there to kill him.

He only survived that long because Caligula loved to make fun of him and everybody else thought he was a retard that would never amount to anything because he had a stutter.

So he was just kind of left alone to read and learn and occassionally be made fun of by Caligula.

but history is defined by the deeds of great men

I think Claudius is the personal mascot-emperor of Veeky Forums. He was a quiet, diligent administrator and a historian to boot.

Defined, but not always determined.

>Justinian
>Majorian
my nigger

>tfw got picked on as a kid like Claudius
>tfw never even showed them wrong by amounting to something
I wish I was Claudius.

Fellow red pilled Nero supporter

>Top five best emperors

Augustus
Trajan
Hadrian
Antoninus Pius
Diocletian

>Top five worst emperors
Tiberius
Caligula
Nero
Elagabalus
Commodus

>Your personal favorite emperor

Augustus or Marcus Aurelius (I know he's a meme but I genuinely like stoic philosophy).

>The emperor you dislike the most

Tiberius - he set a piss poor standard for the rest of the Julio-Claudians and he's a disgrace to Augustus.

>Favorite "bad" emperor

Elagabalus is a laugh.

>Most disliked "good" emperor

Septimius Severus. Kicked the can down the road too much.

>Most underrated emperor

Antoninus Pius. Not too flashy, just a good emperor.

>Most overrated emperor

Does Julius Caesar count? It always bugs me that he's the first guy that comes to a normy's mind if you say "name an ancient Roman". If we're starting at Augustus, I'd say (and I like the guy) Marcus Aurelius. Everyone loves him but Rome was going to shit during his reign and he left a trash heir.

>Emperor under whose reign you would be the most comfy

Antoninus Pius

Kek move the goalposts much?

any good books on the empire?

Wasn't my intention. We define history by its great men, but the events themselves are determined by much larger things more often than not; plagues, migrations, innovations, etc.